Convenient food preparation is an important consideration in the modern era with a substantial fraction of the population engaged in diverse busy activities and time often being of the essence. The ability to cook food remotely from a power source can save energy, add convenience, and make cleaning easier. For example, being able to directly cook food from a frozen state to a well-cooked or done state can be a major convenience. Likewise, packaging food in a way that allows easy and direct movement from freezer to fridge to cooking appliance can be a significant advantage when time considerations are paramount, and preparing food at a predictable temperature is convenient and beneficial from both taste and health standpoints.
Cooking methods are known using electricity and include descriptions of packaging methods for heating food (such as disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,069,920, 5,055,312, 4,971,819, 4,099,454, 3,966,972 and 3,886,290), control of heating output to arrive at a desired degree of doneness (such as disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,034,359, 4,822,982 and 4,554,440), and large scale food sterilization (as disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,522,834 and 4,496,594). Methods for heating a single packaged food item electrically in a package with a disposable lid have been described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,055,312 and 5,069,920. A circuit that measures RMS current to determine the degree of doneness was discussed in detail in U.S. Pat. No.4,554,440. A control circuit that stops current flow and pneumatically retracts electrodes was disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,034,359.